In the early months of World War II, radio producer Louis G. Cowan was faced with a problem. Not long before the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, Cowan had joined the radio arm of the War Department's Special Services division, where his primary duties had been to produce radio-based propaganda for civilian audiences. Now, however, hundreds of thousands of newly enlisted soldiers were in desperate need of mainstream entertainment - in particular, the sort of radio shows they had enjoyed while they were civilians. In anticipation of the conflict to come, a "Buddy Disc" program had already been established to distribute recorded music and comedy programs to recreation centers and mess halls, but for troops stationed far away from home, there was a constant need for the sort of morale-building entertainment that radio could best provide.

Cowan considered the audience for such a show. As a result of the attack the previous December, in a short three months, hundreds of thousands of outraged American citizens had enlisted in the armed forces. Faced with the regimentation and training needed to turn a group of civilians into a strong fighting force, recruits and draftees alike had to quickly get used to taking commands from practically anyone in uniform - and clearly the men would appreciate the chance to issue a few commands themselves. And what if the commands could be issued to any of the top stars of radio, the stage, nightclubs, the recording industry, and motion pictures - a command to sing the songs they wanted, tell the jokes they wanted, and present pretty much anything else they wanted to hear? There was no doubt that that would raise morale.

And so "Command Performance" was born - a show that would be presented exclusively for service men and women, to their specifications, and based upon their "commands". The idea was simple yet brilliant, meeting the need that millions of service personnel had to feel special, recognized, and appreciated, as well as the desire of thousands of writers, performers, musicians, producers, and technicians to somehow contribute their own special talents to the war effort.

Cowman knew that the show would have a very small budget - in fact, it would likely have no budget at all - and so began by contacting the various show business unions. All quickly agreed to waive the union wage and conditional agreements of their members so long as the broadcasts were limited solely to military audiences. (With the exception of a single Christmas show, aired by all four radio networks in December of 1942, "Command Performance" would never be broadcast to or heard by civilian listeners.) Next, using his connections in the entertainment fields (and calling in a few favors), he arranged to use the New York studios and recording facilities of both the CBS and NBC radio networks to rehearse, stage, and record the shows for shortwave rebroadcast. Finally, though a combination of letter writing, phone calls, advertisements in Variety, and word of mouth, he announced to the entertainment world that he needed as many people as possible to contribute both their time and talents to make "Command Performance" the greatest radio series ever produced. Even though there were no paychecks to be had, knowing it was "for the boys", the stars responded in droves. Even George M. Cohan, long known for being very protective of his copyrights, allowed "Command Performance" to use his World War I anthem "Over There" as its theme song without charge.

The first show, performed at the Longacre Theater in New York on March 1, 1942, was hosted by Eddie Cantor and featured much of his radio show cast. The next week, on March 9th, Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians hosted. Then, on March 13th, Kate Smith took the microphone, bringing Ed "Archie" Gardner along from "Duffy's Tavern" as well as comic lecturer Robert Benchley, "the king of the one-liners" Henny Youngman, and vocalist Barry Wood from "Your Hit Parade". Once the shows began to be sent out via shortwave from New York, the letters quickly began pouring in from servicemen worldwide. The first "commands" had come in verbally, but now Cowan and his production team had to cope with an onslaught of requests that arrived by the thousands on an almost daily basis. Some were fairly easy to fill - Would Dinah Shore sing "Blues in the Night"? Would Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy do a comedy routine? - but some were not only more difficult, but also more poignant. One lonely soldier wanted to hear the bark of his faithful dog back home, another wanted to hear the sound of the foghorns in San Francisco harbor, while a third wanted to hear the sound of the bluebirds outside his bedroom window in Indiana. "Command Performance" complied, sending recording engineers out to capture these simple but memorable sounds of home and later airing them on the show.

It wasn't long before "Command Performance" became THE radio show of the war years. Everyone who was anyone in show business wanted to make at least one appearance - and, to the relief of creator Louis Cowan and newly-appointed producer Vick Knight, they usually brought their writers along with them. Responding to an ever-increasing demand for movie stars, the show gradually moved from New York to Hollywood, occupying space at the Sunset Boulevard studios of CBS and NBC. And, in late 1943, it became the jewel in the crown of the Armed Forces Radio Service, a brand new division of the War Department that would exist solely to bring information, education, and information to military personnel throughout the world.

Heard today from the perspective of over sixty years, "Command Performance" remains great variety entertainment, filled to the brim with comedy and music. You can enjoy it solely as entertainment - the shows are frequently hilarious as well as tuneful - or consider it a virtual time capsule of "who was who" in show business during the war. Thanks to the "you tell us what you want to hear" nature of the show, listeners can always expect the unexpected; for example, on one show, hosted by Betty Grable, you'll hear Judy Canova, Robert Benchley, Mary Martin, The Music Maids and Hal, and Harry James and his Orchestra (before Harry married Betty), as well as Jack Benny and his entire radio cast: Don Wilson, Mary Livingstone, Dennis Day, Phil Harris, and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson. That's just ONE show - and a fairly typical one at that!

In terms of content, "Command Performance" is hardly what we would today call politically correct. After all, the year is 1942 and the United States has entered a war which, at that point, it was not at all sure that it would win. As in all wars, the initial goal of any government is to continuously vilify the enemy and "Command Performance" certainly makes it a point to regularly call a spade a spade - or, in this case, "japs", "nips", "krauts", and whatever other anti-Axis slurs the writers can come up with. Likewise, despite the increasing presence of WAVEs, WACs, and other female-based branches of the services, the U. S. military was still overwhelming male, meaning that the scripts are generally aimed directly at an audience of men desperately in need of morale-building entertainment. But don't presume that, for all this, "Command Performance" was ever salacious or off-color; the closest the series ever came to being controversial was the freedom to include the occasional "damn" or "hell" into a script. Considering they were being performed for an all-GI audience, in fact, you'd expect the shows to be a little more adult - but, instead, they maintain a rather sweet yet hip homeyness that constantly reminded listeners of the lives they left behind when they went to war - and the lives they wanted to return to when that war was over.

Despite being prerecorded for shortwave rebroadcast, "Command Performance" was not immune from the often delightful hazards of live radio. In the first years of the show, the production team didn't have the time, ability, or inclination to edit the programs to make them 100% perfect; truly, unless the microphone fell over or the scripts fell to the floor, the show always went on. As a result, today we can enjoy such mishaps as a slightly inebriated Frank Morgan losing his place in a routine with his "Maxwell House Coffee Time" cohort John Conte and hilariously trying to get back on track while the audience howls. Likewise, since movie star participants often came to the recording sessions at the last minute, we get the chance to hear a willing but unrehearsed Gary Cooper read baseball predictions for the upcoming season as if it was the first time he had ever seen the script - which was indeed most likely the case.

Occasional mishaps aside, "Command Performance" was never amateur night at the microphone, nor was it ever a thrown-together camp show. The performers, musicians, technicians, writers, and announcers were all top-notch professionals and, despite donating their services for the benefit of the armed forces, all insisted on the same level of performance before the "Command Performance" microphones as they would have for a high salaried nightclub or theater appearance or on their own radio shows. By radio or mainstream recording standards, in fact, the musical numbers are often astoundingly good, with vocalists like Judy Garland, Bing Crosby, Lena Horne, and Frances Langford singing with the full orchestras from the Paramount, RKO, or 20th Century-Fox motion picture studios. As for the comedy, though some wartime references are a bit dated, overall the jokes stand up remarkably well and some of the featured bits - Jack Benny performing a violin duet with Jascha Heifetz, for instance - are true classics.

Episodes of "Command Performance" have been in the hands of collectors for years, with most of the shows originating from the worn and damaged vinyl discs on which the series was later distributed. Many a radio show enthusiast has been impressed by the content of the shows, but disappointed by the poor fidelity of the existing copies. Both die-hard collectors and casual listeners alike will be thrilled with the crisp and sparkling fidelity of the shows in this ten-hour collection from Radio Archives. Transferred directly from both network lacquers and vinyl masters, these twenty shows literally sound as if they were recorded yesterday rather than nearly seventy years ago. If you've heard any these shows before in tape or MP3 versions - and especially if you ever heard them via shortwave when you were in the service - you'll be amazed by the quality. Listen to them with a set of earbuds or headphones and you'll be even more impressed; it's not like you're in the audience for the shows, it's like you've got a private seat in the control room. Really, they're just that good.

So take a trip back in time with "Command Performance" - a time when America was fighting another war in far off lands, when brave men and women risked their lives for our freedom, and when show business answered the call to entertain them. It's a entertaining journey and also one that reminds us just how much we owe to those people who literally fought to save the world during World War II. We know its a trip you'll want to take time and time again.
#3 Hostess Kate SmithWith Barry Wood, Ed "Archie" Gardner, John Brown, Robert Benchley, Henny Youngman, Ted Collins, and announcer Ted Husing
Recorded Friday, March 13, 1942 - 30:00 - War Department, Special Services

On the evening George Raft hosts Command Performance (May 18, 1942), he makes the statement this is not from the Red or the Blue Network, but rather the Red, White, and Blue Network. The entertainment personalities from this period in History were certainly more patriotic that is the case today. The talent on Command Performance included Radio, Motion Pictures, the Broadway Stage, Classical entertainers and just about all the great talents of the time during these broadcasts aired for the troops during World War II including many noted British performers.

The Radio Archives staff have again produced these Radio Programs in a sound and tonal quality that probably rivals the actual broadcast in which they were initially aired if not better.

Radio Archives provides each Volume in a heavy duty plastic box, with individual plastic sleeves for added protection of each CD in the grouping.

Calling all stations... calling all stations: Command Performance Volume 1 is the best thing to hit the enemy since the Marines landed in Guadacanal. I've been listening to it for five years now. How about a resupply, aka "Volume 2?" HELP! CANT HOLD OUT MUCH LONGER!

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Great sound....

December 7, 2013

Reviewer:
Ty from kokomo, IN United States

Sounds like it was recorded just yesterday. A must for any Old Time radio fan.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Pure patriotism!

June 20, 2013

Reviewer:
andy wood from west yorkshire, ENGLAND United Kingdom

Heck, I feel patriotic listening to this - and I'm British!! A testament to the celebrities of the day, providing unique entertainment for the Allies - literally giving them what they want. Wonderful sound, wonderfully entertaining shows featuring many huge stars of the day and some surprisingly good lesser known acts.